1) Expanding Leisure Time

2) Learning to Consume

3) Patterns of Consumption

1) Expanding Leisure Time

Just as the Media expanded to fill leisure hours, marketing expanded to absorb disposable income.

The preferred target market is the one with the money to spend. As a result, overall popularity in mass media becomes less important than popularity among the "right" segment of the audience.

This helps explain both film and television's obsession with the 12 to 24 demographic. They have both maximum leisure and considerable disposable income.

The ad to the right appeals to a very narrow subculture - male gamers.

No one likes to be "pigeonholed". But finding common characteristics among consumers is the key to niche marketing.

Click here to read "Finding a Niche in Niche Marketing"

"Now, instead of pouring money into long-established marketing plans that target the White middle-class, many companies are developing strategies aimed at creating an initial buzz in the 'hood that reverberates all the way to the suburbs.."

Learning to Consume

1) Consumption through Exposure

Just like media helped teach us how to act, it taught us how to consume. Media made people aware of the world outside their own immediate location. It exposed them to a world of potential products, enlarging their sense of their own purchasing possibilities.

2)Consumption through Linkage

We compare our standard of living with those we see in the media, and often find our standard lacking. To catch up to that standard, we consume.

We compare ourselves to those we see in the media, and often find ourselves lacking. To copy these media models, we consume.

We no longer consume according to our real needs. The media plants false needs which drive our consumption.

This article argues "stereotypes that can result in damaging consequences to every member of the population still exist." This article reinforces that both the Media Role Model and the Group Behavior Model studied in Module 4 are a central part of advertising.

3)Consumption through Desire

Emotional desires and abstract concepts like "luxury" motivate our consumption. Psychological factors also influence what we buy, not careful analysis.